Retail stores often use printed labels or tags affixed to a shelf to provide information to shoppers, such as the price of the products on the shelf. One disadvantage of printed tags is that they must be replaced each time the information regarding the product is updated. The need to replace shelf tags can be relatively frequent, for example, due to changes in the price of the products. To address this problem, stores have begun replacing printed tags with electronic tags. Electronic tags include an electronic display and an internal memory that stores information about the product. In addition, electronic tags often include near-field communication (NFC) module. The NFC module enables the electronic tag to provide a shopper with additional information stored in the tag's memory in response to the shopper touching their mobile device to the tag. The NFC module may also be used to enable an employee of the store to update data on the electronic tag using, for example, an NFC scanning device.
To update the information stored on the electronic tags, data must be transmitted to the particular tag in question. Because NFC is limited to a very short range, updating electronic tags using NFC requires the employee to visit each tag. To speed the updating process, electronic tags may include another communication device for the purpose of receiving updated information. To update the information stored on these types of electronic tags, the updated information is transmitted from a gateway that communicates with the electronic tags over a Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network (LR-WPAN). However, this type of updating is also subject to certain problems.
For example, to reduce power consumption in the electronic tag and prolong battery life, the LR-WPAN receiver in the electronic tag typically remains in a sleep mode for the majority of the time, and only wakes up occasionally to check for transmissions from the gateway. This can lead to delays in updating the information stored on the electronic tag, especially if the wake up time fails to coincide with the transmission of data from the gateway. In addition, if more than one electronic tag is being used to provide information on the same product, displayed information may become inconsistent between the tags in the likely event that the tags wake up at different times. Moreover, if the electronic tag is located in a dead zone, or otherwise shielded from the LR-WPAN signals, it may fail to receive the updated information altogether. This can lead to electronic tags that provide out of date information to mobile devices that query the tag using NFC.
Thus, improved systems, methods, and computer program products for providing information to a mobile device in response to NFC queries of electronic tags are needed.